A PROLIFIC offender is back behind bars today after stealing and crashing his brother's car.Jamie Arnold, 24, crashed the Volkswagen Golf before driving it back to his brother's home, parking it on the drive and putting back the keys.

A PROLIFIC offender is back behind bars today after stealing and crashing his brother's car.

Jamie Arnold, 24, crashed the Volkswagen Golf before driving it back to his brother's home, parking it on the drive and putting back the keys.

It wasn't until his brother went to use the vehicle the next day that he realised it had been involved in a smash.

Arnold, of Fritton Close, Ipswich has been in and out of prison and young offenders' institutes since he was 15 and his mother Mandy Richardson is adamant he is not getting the help he needs.

She claims her son has mental health problems and wants him to undergo tests for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which she believes may be the root of his problems.

The 44-year-old said: “His brother doesn't understand how he can show no remorse for taking his car but he doesn't know the full extent of Jamie's problems.

“I am not being horrible to Jamie but he is not right. A normal person wouldn't do what he does.

“People think he is just a pain but he doesn't know what he is doing until it is too late.”

Arnold was released from Hollesley Bay prison on licence on January 15 and his belongings only arrived home last week.

He had served just over a year of a 33 month sentence for robbery and has now been resent to prison for breaching the terms of his licence.

Mrs Richardson added: “He was let out into my care and he was very positive when he came out but that only lasts for about two weeks and then it's the same old story.

“There is no back up for him. He goes to probation and has drug tests and all the normal things but other than that there's no help.”

In his latest offence, on February 24, Arnold took his brother's car from his home in Cobbold Road, Felixstowe and crashed into a Vauxhall Astra in the early hours of the morning.

His brother found the car on the drive the following day and it was so badly damaged it has been written-off.

Arnold confessed what had happened and was recalled to prison.

Appearing at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court on Monday he admitted aggravated vehicle taking, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, driving without insurance and driving without a licence.

He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison concurrent to the remainder of his original sentence.

Were you involved in the crash with Arnold? What do you think? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk